Kentucky Elk · Unit 4
Kentucky Unit 4 covers 787,996 acres and lies 39 miles west of Pikeville and 52 miles north-east of London. 8% of it is public land, mostly national forest (6%) and state land (2%). In 2025, hunters took 21 elk here; hunter counts not published. Kentucky draws the permit first and the unit second, in a separate drawing in July, so the 170 ES-ARCH tags in the 2025 draw were the statewide quota rather than this unit's. Unit 4 takes 77 hunters in all in 2026, 34 of them on ES-ARCH.
No points in this draw. Every applicant has the same chance each year.
No more draws here. The last one was 2025.
Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources held its 2026 elk draw without Unit 4. No current hunt code lists this unit; the Kentucky elk hunts on offer are drawn elsewhere. The odds, costs and harvest below are that history, kept for the record.
4 licenses · NR capped at 10%
first choice, NR
2025, all licenses
6% Forest Service
787,996 acres
Boundaries are drawn for orientation only. The written boundary description in the regulations governs.
Best Bets
Ranked by your odds times how often that license type's hunters filled their tag in 2025. Nonresident, first choice, 2025 draw; licenses with at least 10 tags that anyone can buy.
- Success
- 27%
- Season
- Sep 26 – Oct 7
- Tags / Apps
- 140 / —
- If Drawn
- $570
- Success
- 27%
- Season
- Nov 28 – Jan 6
- Tags / Apps
- 164 / —
- If Drawn
- $570
- Success
- 27%
- Season
- Sep 12 – Dec 11
- Tags / Apps
- 170 / —
- If Drawn
- $570
Every License in Unit 4
The last draw held in Unit 4 was 2025. These are that draw's chances for a first-choice nonresident applicant, kept for the record.
| What | Season | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| BULL-FA Standard | Bull firearms elk quota hunt (one of two 5-day weeks randomly assigned) | <1% (small sample) | |
| COW-FA Standard | Cow (antlerless) firearms elk quota hunt (one of two 5-day weeks randomly assigned) | <1% (small sample) | |
| ES-ARCH Standard | Either-sex archery/crossbow elk quota hunt | <1% (small sample) | |
| YOUTH Youth · youth | Youth-only either-sex elk quota hunt… | <1% (small sample) |
First-choice nonresident odds, 2025 draw. No points in this draw: every applicant has the same chance.
Draw results: KDFWR 2025 Elk Report, retrieved Sep 1, 2026.
If you draw (2026 nonresident fees): Standard $570 ($10 to apply) · Youth $370 ($10 to apply). Open Aug 1, 2026 – Apr 30, 2027. Full fee breakdown.
Harvest
| Year | Elk | Success |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21 | 27% |
| 2024 | 35 | 46% |
| 2023 | 36 | 27% |
| 2022 | — | 31% |
| 2021 | — | 36% |
| 2020 | — | 45% |
| 2025 by License | Hunters | Elk | Success |
|---|---|---|---|
| Either sex archery | — | 8 | 24% |
| Bull firearm week 1 | — | 5 | 33% |
| Bull firearm week 2 | — | 4 | 25% |
| Cow firearm week 1 | — | 1 | 20% |
| Cow firearm week 2 | — | 1 | 20% |
| Youth | — | 2 | 67% |
2025 split: archery 8 (42%), firearm 11 (58%)
What Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources publishes after each season, for everyone who hunted the area: harvest statistics, not draw odds. Hunter counts not published for 2025. Kentucky's figures are counts of elk taken by permit holders in each unit, as KDFWR publishes them - not a survey estimate. Every count reconciles against the permits sold and the success rate the agency prints beside it. Source: KDFWR 2026 Elk Hunting Info; KDFWR 2024 Elk Hunting Info page; KDFWR 2023 Elk Hunting Info page.
The Ground
| Private | 724,324 ac | 92% |
| National Forest | 44,677 ac | 6% |
| State land | 15,908 ac | 2% |
| Other public | 2,419 ac | <1% |
| Department of Defense | 622 ac | <1% |
| County or city land | 45 ac | <1% |
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Gap Analysis Project 2026 PAD-US 4.1 Fee Managers.
What the Agency Says About the Area
Kentucky is approximately 95% privately owned, and much of the public land available for elk hunting received significant hunting pressure. The EHU system was developed in 2019 to reduce the risk of overharvesting elk in any one area.
Source: KDFWR 2026 Elk Hunting Info.
▸ Sources 11
- KDFWR 2025 Elk Report draw results, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- Kentucky Legislative Research Commission 2026 301 KAR 5:022. License fees, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2026 Elk Hunting Info harvest, area description, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2024 Elk Hunting Info page harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2023 Elk Hunting Info page harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2022 Elk Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2021 Elk Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2020 Elk Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2019 Elk Report harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- KDFWR 2026 Elk_Hunting_Units boundary, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- U.S. Geological Survey, Gap Analysis Project 2026 PAD-US 4.1 Fee Managers land ownership, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
About These Numbers
Odds are from the 2025 draw, the latest on file, computed from Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources' published results. They are what happened in that draw, not a forecast. Under five tags a percentage carries a *, because one applicant either way swings it. A dash means the agency did not publish the number, and a date marked expected is last cycle's schedule rolled forward. How we compute these.
Report an error on this page
We don't take applications: check Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources's site and apply there.
Prior-draw odds from Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources' results, not a forecast · Methodology · All Kentucky elk hunts